Wendy Pearson has set up a blog to continue the discussion about queer sexualities in science fiction that she began with the Queer Universes book. I see that Nicola Griffith has already signed up to contribute.
The opening post makes it clear that the blog is about sexuality, not about gender, and thus I don’t expect it to cover trans issues, excepting of course that trans people can obviously exhibit the full range of human sexuality. There may be the odd attempt to co-opt trans narratives as a sexuality issue, as there was in the book, but hopefully the blog will stay on mission. It is, after all, a good mission.
I actually see gender and sexuality as inextricably intertwined, but part of the point in bringing queer theory to bear, in addition to and sometimes instead of, feminist theory, is to make some changes in the encrustations of discourse that have accreted from 30-odd years of feminist study of sf that has tended to see sexuality as invariably secondary — if anything, as a necessary, and often linear, side effect of gender. That has also always struck me as a trans move, although not perhaps in a way that the emerging genre of trans studies might embrace (or not, given the varied conversations going on in that field). But, yes, sexuality is our point of entry — which does not, cannot, make gender irrelevant.
Wendy:
Sounds good to me. Sexuality and gender are inextricably intertwined in the popular imagination, so there will always be a large amount of cross-over. But equally they are different things. Trans people generally want separation because of the common accusation that they are “really” gay/lesbian people who have “gone too far”, but I can equally see that sexuality issues need to be divorced from discussion of gender and I’m very happy to see that happening. Ideally we all do our own thing, and come together for mutual support and idea-sharing as and when it is appropriate to do so.